Arma 2 Question: Getting Gunships to Attack

RooksBailey · January 05, 2014, 10:14:58 PM

Been foolin' around with the Arma 2 editor again. :) Question: anybody know how to get gunships to attack? I am trying to create a scenario where a platoon of M1 tanks are attacked by a flight of Hind gunships. I spawned the gunships and set a "seek and destroy" waypoint for them, but when they arrive, they just fly over the tanks and circle until they all get shot down by the M1's .50 cals. Any ideas?

Apocalypse 31 · January 06, 2014, 07:09:38 AM

Set the Hind waypoint to 'Seek and Destroy' near the tanks
Synchronize the tank platoon to the Seek and Destroy waypoint (click and drag)

Theoretically that should tell the flight of Hinds to attack that gunship. But it's ArmA, and somethings things just dont work.

Swatter · January 06, 2014, 11:36:00 AM

You might want to make sure the hinds are assigned to OPFOR.

RooksBailey · January 06, 2014, 04:16:21 PM

Quote from: Apocalypse 31 on January 06, 2014, 07:09:38 AM
Set the Hind waypoint to 'Seek and Destroy' near the tanks
Synchronize the tank platoon to the Seek and Destroy waypoint (click and drag)

Theoretically that should tell the flight of Hinds to attack that gunship. But it's ArmA, and somethings things just dont work.

I'll give it a try! I never knew you could synchronize to a waypoint!

Quote from: SwatterYou might want to make sure the hinds are assigned to OPFOR.

I did. Thanks for the double-check, though!

EDIT: No go. I can't synchronize the tanks the the waypoint. Oh well.

This is one of the reasons I am not in a rush to pick up A3. After using the editor in A2 for a while now, I am struck at how what I could consider to be certain basic functionality is not included in the game's logic. I hope A3's editor is improved....

Swatter · January 06, 2014, 05:26:44 PM

A number of months ago I got deeply into modding ArmA 2. I found that the lack of documentation was the killer, but I eventually figured most of it out. Syncing the objects properly was tricky at first, but prone to misuse. Its been awhile, but try syncing the leader of the enemy formation to the player object and the enemy flight elements to the enemy flight leader.

The editor is more powerful than it looks at first. Once you begin working with script modules, things become very interesting.

undercovergeek · January 06, 2014, 05:31:18 PM

i found everything i needed to know by simply googling the question 'arma 2, pilot rescue' managed to get me everything i needed on building a hostage mission, infiltrate by chopper, rescue the guy, call for chopper to return and get the hell out - loved building missions

currently working thru a 15 part Arma III mission building tutorial

RooksBailey · January 07, 2014, 04:25:17 AM

Quote from: Swatter on January 06, 2014, 05:26:44 PM
A number of months ago I got deeply into modding ArmA 2. I found that the lack of documentation was the killer, but I eventually figured most of it out. Syncing the objects properly was tricky at first, but prone to misuse. Its been awhile, but try syncing the leader of the enemy formation to the player object and the enemy flight elements to the enemy flight leader.

That did the trick!

Thanks! Albeit, I confess to still be unclear why I had to sync the flight leader to the platoon leader. I would have thought just setting the S&D waypoint would have been enough to start the fight. So confused....

Thanks again!

Quote from: undercovergeeki found everything i needed to know by simply googling the question 'arma 2, pilot rescue' managed to get me everything i needed on building a hostage mission, infiltrate by chopper, rescue the guy, call for chopper to return and get the hell out - loved building missions

I think I found the video you watched using that search - 9 parts, right? It did clear up some of the aspects of the editor for me. I was surprised to see I actually had discovered a lot of it on my own, though. :)

Quotecurrently working thru a 15 part Arma III mission building tutorial

Have they made any significant changes to the editor? Is it easier to use?

Post script: this Arma scenario was inspired by a recent game of Flashpoint Campaigns: Red Storm where a platoon of M1s shot down two gunships without loss. That result surprised me so I recreated it here. While I did match the date (August 1, 1985 - who decided WWIII was going to be an August war? :) Every author seems agreed on that point starting with Hackett.), weather (hazy), time (11am), and tried to closely match the terrain (forest), the actual vehicles are not identical, so it isn't a 100% identical situation. Results: about 25% of the time, the M1s take down the choppers without loss in Arma 2. In the above run, they lost two M1s, which seems to happen about 50% of the time. The remaining 25%, the platoon loses three or more tanks. Interestingly, the Russians lose at least 1 gunship 75% of the time.

undercovergeek · January 07, 2014, 04:55:24 AM

Quote from: RooksBailey on January 07, 2014, 04:25:17 AM
Have they made any significant changes to the editor? Is it easier to use?

Ive only watched the first 2 vids - placing friendlies and placing enemies and then the guy has a vid of a MP game using that set up - that seems practically the same as II but he has a vehicle and squad on patrol around the enemy base and at the end of vid II says i will show you how to do that with the new module from III that takes no time at all - ill let you know

Swatter · January 07, 2014, 11:24:59 AM

That's an interesting cross-game test.

The helicopter AI can be wonky at times. You have to make sure they don't loiter, where they become sitting ducks. If they make more than one pass in a contested area, they are asking for death.

MengJiao · January 07, 2014, 12:00:58 PM

Quote from: Swatter on January 07, 2014, 11:24:59 AM
That's an interesting cross-game test.

The helicopter AI can be wonky at times. You have to make sure they don't loiter, where they become sitting ducks. If they make more than one pass in a contested area, they are asking for death.

This may seem strange, but I've never had any trouble with helicopters attacking. BUT, I always have them attached to a ground commander. Generally, they report targets and eventually attack them. My most recent successful experience was in ARMAIII on the little island early in the beta. I had some choppers in a scenario on the big Island, but they killed everything so fast it wasn't much fun.

RooksBailey · January 07, 2014, 04:44:04 PM

Quote from: Swatter on January 07, 2014, 11:24:59 AM
That's an interesting cross-game test.

The helicopter AI can be wonky at times. You have to make sure they don't loiter, where they become sitting ducks. If they make more than one pass in a contested area, they are asking for death.

Yeah, that's what happened here. If that surviving gunship kept on going, it would have lived to fight again. By coming back to volley another round, it doomed itself. I'm still not sure what happened to the other gunship. Must have been downed out of my LoS.